Sir Jim Ratcliffe can't make the same claim about Erik ten Hag at Manchester United any more
Erik ten Hag is under fresh scrutiny at Man Utd following their dismal defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend.
Whether they were right or wrong to keep Erik ten Hag in charge, there was an obvious reason why Manchester United hierarchy did so in the summer.
United chiefs spoke with other coaches during their strategic review but ultimately reached the conclusion they were better off sticking with a manager who was already two seasons into his project and who had been hampered by various circumstances.
“The coach isn’t the central issue at Manchester United,” uttered Ratcliffe in a chat with Bloomberg. “It’s a sports club. It needs to be competitive, it needs a degree of intensity, but with a supportive side to it because you are dealing with players who are relatively young. It hasn’t had that type of environment historically.”
United accepted there were wider failings at play that contributed to their struggles last season and set their focus on creating the right environment required for them to fulfil their enormous untapped potential.
They appointed a new chief executive, a technical director, hired a sporting director, refreshed the coaching staff and backed the manager handsomely in the transfer window. In doing so, they not only provided Ten Hag with the resources to improve, they also ramped the pressure up with him and added extra responsibility to results on the pitch.
What is so alarming is that instead of progression, there has been regression at Old Trafford this season. It is easy to fall into the trap that they play without an identity, but perhaps the damning truth is that their identity remains a mishmash of styles and tactics that so quickly transcends into chaos the second they are faced with adversity on the pitch.
United also can't use the injury excuse that was so convenient at times last season and they were only really one player away from fielding their strongest side against Tottenham at the weekend. Even then, it is hard to argue either Luke Shaw or Rasmus Hojlund would really have altered the result had they started the match.
Instead, United were outclassed by a Tottenham side who were without their best player, and who were being coached by a manager who has been in charge a year less than Ten Hag. Ange Postecoglou is one of six managers above United in the Premier League table who has been in their respective position for less time than the current United boss.
The elephant in the room is that though United kept Ten Hag in the summer, they didn't exactly endorse him as the long-term solution either. He was given an extension of his previous deal rather than a brand new contract, while Omar Berrada or Dan Ashworth both began working for the club after the managerial call had already been made.
They have done the right thing by backing the Dutchman ahead of a daunting double header away at FC Porto and Aston Villa, but if they don't show significant signs of improvement in either match, then there is little evidence to suggest things will ever get better.
Ten Hag wasn't the central issue at United in the summer, but he is central to their problems now.